YMMV / The Mysterious Island

• Adaptation Displacement: The film is generally more well-known than the book.
• Fan Nickname: The Canon Welding of Verne's earlier two books 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways forms what fans call the "Sea Trilogy".
• Ho Yay:
  • For starters there's the other four castaways reverence of Cyrus Harding and how much of a priority they put in finding him during their arrival on the island; the narration itself notes that if there was a sudden calamity the other four would be too distracted to notice.
  • Then there's Pencroft and Herbert's relationship. The story tries to paint Pencroft as a Parental Substitute to Herbert, but since Herbert is a grown man Pencroft's affection for Herbert comes off as romantic.
    • Herbert is a teenager in the book, which most adaptations tend to forget about, portraying him as a young adult.
  • Isaac Asimov notes in his afterword for the book that it's odd how when the castaways build their paradise and discuss how they have everything they could ever want, no one mentions that it would nice to have some women on the island.
• Tear Jerker: Poor Jup. Nemo's back story is probably also a qualifier. And the destruction of the colony after all the work they put into it is pretty depressing too.
• Values Dissonance: While Fair for Its Day, it's still a bit of a shock when the narration cheerfully informs that Pencroff and Neb are naturally on kitchen duty since one's a sailor and the other a negro.
  • Neb in general is awkward to read now. While one gets the feeling Verne was trying to do right by Neb by pointing out what a perfect and wonderful human being he is, Neb's lavish devotion to his former master (whom he still refers to as Master without anyone correcting him) and the way the other guys leave him out of things for no reason is weird. The worst of it is when they train Jup and Pencroft says they won't have to rely on Neb as a servant now, like that's a given.
• The Woobie: Ayrton. Nemo has it pretty bad too.
  • In In Search of the Castaways Ayrton was more of an Asshole Victim, and his marooning was entirely justified: if the heroes ever brought him back to Britain, he certainly would hang.

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